Where We Go From Here
by fananicfan
Summary: Please read the ANs at the start of this chapter.  It will explain all.


AN: This is the piece I wrote in response to a challenge at another site. The challenge was to use any or all of the five famous movie dialogue quotes - a line from five different movies - in a one-shot story.

AN #2: You'll recognize some of the events in this story, even though they aren't described in detail. However, they may be a little out of order from the way the episodes aired - please roll with it and just think that they aired in the order they appear in this story.

**Where We Go From Here**

By fananicfan

RENEE PETERSEN'S APARTMENT

LATE NIGHT

Renee tossed and turned. The ending of a conversation that she'd had with Mic as he'd walked her to the car after the symphony tonight echoed in her head, not allowing her to sleep.

"You're an attractive and bright woman. You deserve to be happy. If that's Harm, then good on you. Go for it," Mic had said.

She wasn't sure if he had been being supportive, given that their respective mates were elsewhere and together, or if he had been offering genuine advice.

"What does being happy mean, really?" she'd asked in return.

"You have a successful career, so I believe that, as a woman, you should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how," Mic had replied.

"Thanks, Mic. That's really sweet of you. Mac's a lucky woman."

"Thanks, I hope that she thinks so," he'd replied, sounding less than confidant.

"Is there a problem between you and Mac?" Renee had asked.

"No worries ..." he'd said, sounding no more sure than he had the last time that he'd spoken.

"Once the wedding is over ... I know what you mean," Renee had responded, sure that until Mac had a ring on her finger signifying her status as a married woman, the bond that seemed visible between she and Harm would be a threat to her happiness.

Renee sighed. Why was she letting their conversation get to her this way?

It wasn't a question to which she needed to give any real thought because she knew the reason.

It was because he was away again, and Mac was with him.

Maybe the answer wasn't to wait and pray that Mic got a ring on Mac's finger, but to take matters into her own hands.

"I'm going to make him an offer that he can't refuse. That's what I'm going to do," Renee said with determination as she rolled over to her side, bringing a fistful of the covers with her that were balled up in her hand.

TWO DAYS LATER - MARCH 17th

Renee had been thrilled when she'd received a call from Harm saying that he'd returned from his latest assignment.

Whether he'd come home later in the month or in time for it, she'd planned to have a private salute to the Irish with him, so the Victoria's Secret selection that was clinging to her body had been a planned purchase.

That fact that she was actually going to be wearing the green undergarments on St. Patrick's Day just furthered her hopes that the luck of the Irish would be with her this evening.

HARM'S APARTMENT

DINNER TIME

After hearing the knock, Harm made his way to the door wondering if "girlfriend" was a completely accurate reference for Renee, his dinner guest for this evening.

He supposed that, in the sense of 'a woman with whom you're involved,' it was an accurate title. However, though she was a girl, if asked to name his friends, Mac's name would come to his mind much sooner than Renee's and be higher on the list if he were told to rank them in order of importance to him.

He shook his head as he reached for the doorknob to let in his _girlfriend_ - they had been dating for going on a year now and they were sexual partners, so she deserved the respect of some kind of title reflecting that they were more than casual acquaintances.

Harm opened the door.

"Hi, Harm," Renee purred as she sauntered passed him.

"Hello, Renee," he said, wondering why he hadn't missed her more while he'd been away.

He'd been gone for only four days. Maybe he hadn't been away long enough to miss her.

It seemed to him that a proper response to seeing each other should be a kiss hello, so he flicked the front door with his hand so that it would close and reached for her.

He pressed his lips to hers and lingered there longer than he'd planned. Maybe he'd missed her a little more than he'd thought.

"Let me take your coat," Harm said.

"Plan to let me stay awhile, Sailor?" Renee asked seductively.

If she was going to play hard to get, he'd play along.

He smiled at her coyly. "Maybe," he replied as she shrugged off her coat.

"You look fantastic," Harm complimented when the discarded coat revealed the fitted, olive-colored dress that was clinging to her every curve.

He may have praised her appearance, and she did look nice, but, for a fraction of a second, he thought of Renee dressed in a Marine uniform.

Mac looked better in uniform, he assessed quickly.

Renee did have a nice figure, but hers was sharper, or ... he didn't know. He just knew that Mac's rounded contours filled out her uniform quite nicely.

Harm took her coat and, when he turned around to hang her coat on a hook by the door, he felt her pinch his six.

Casting a disparaging glance over his shoulder as if to say, 'What in the hell was that for?', Renee explained, "You aren't wearing green. Gives me a reason not to wait until after dinner to pinch you."

Harm nodded in understanding, but clarified his reason for not wearing green. "I'm not Irish."

"Too bad, I could be your pot of gold," she replied suggestively.

Having hung up her coat, he pulled her close and said, "I wonder if there's a way that I can convert." Then he took her into his arms and kissed her.

When their kiss came to a natural close, he released her.

Moving towards the kitchen, he said, "Dinner should be ready shortly."

"Sounds good," she said as she watched his six as he walked away.

She sighed, not only did he look good, but he definitely knew how to kiss, she thought.

AFTER DINNER

He hadn't been in a rush to get to this point when she'd arrived because he'd known that she'd be staying the night. However, with dinner eaten, the dishes cleared and several glasses of wine having been consumed by each of them while sitting on the couch, it was time to make his move.

However, if this were a movie playing, this is the part where the music would come up to signal that something was about to happen, or a voice over would say, "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night," because the mood of the night was about to take a turn that would change their future.

Harm leaned in, and his lips came closer to hers, but she put her arms out until her palms were pressing against his chest to keep him at bay.

Harm was confused. She'd been hinting at wanting to stay the night since she'd arrived, so why was she pushing him away now?

"I'd like to do something different tonight," she said seriously.

"I've been on a carrier for four days, so it seems that tonight we could be the sailor and his girl when he comes home from sea," Harm said with a grin.

"I don't mean that kind of different. I've been thinking a lot about you and me the last few days and, though this isn't how I imagined it, there's no reason why..." she said, slipping off the couch until she was down on one knee. "...that I couldn't ask you to..." Nervous, she drew in a deep breath and broke eye contact with him. "...marry me."

Harm didn't think that he'd heard her correctly.

Wanting to see his face to gauge his reaction, she looked at him and asked him formally.

"Harm, will you marry me?"

What she saw was fear on his face.

Of course, she'd hoped to hear an immediate yes and for him to passionately kiss her before taking her off to his bed to make love to his future wife.

However, here in the moment, she realized how her proposing to him would certainly be out of character for her and, therefore, have blind sided him, and that, for a long-time bachelor, shock or fear weren't necessarily negative reactions.

"I don't know what to say," he finally choked out after what seemed like an eternity of silence.

"Say yes," she said, now feeling more than a little worried that she wasn't going to get her man.

"I'll have to think about it," Harm said calmly but slowly.

Harm was a man of action, so she thought that she'd have a clear cut answer, good or bad, tonight.

She considered forcing the issue for a moment, but knew that it would only serve to take him from shocked to feeling cornered, and she felt sure that it would end with a negative result, so she thought better of it.

She got to her feet.

Her dress having hiked up when she'd lowered herself to the floor, she pushed it back down to its full length as she stood to her full height.

"Then I should go. You don't need any distractions while you're thinking it over," she said softly.

She thought about staying, feeling that the money that she'd spent on the pale green corset and garters that she was wearing underneath her dress would be wasted, but she thought that indulging in her desire to be with him would work against her overall goal of having him for life.

'Leave him wanting you,' she thought before his voice reached her ears and brought her out of her thoughts.

"I'm sorry, Renee," he said remorsefully.

She wondered if his remorse was for not being able to answer her or if it was the start of an apology for ending their nearly one year relationship.

Her ego bruised, she said, "No problem ... just call me when you know your answer," she added as she made a her way to the door.

She lifted her coat from the hook by the door, but she didn't put it on. She could do that in the elevator.

She turned the doorknob and pulled open the door.

"Harm, I love you," she said without looking his way before leaving his apartment.

She wasn't going to wait to for him to respond.

She'd had all the disappointment that she could handle for one day.

NEXT DAY

JAG HQ

MID-MORNING

Harm hadn't been able to sleep last night for thinking about what he was going to do about Renee. More to the point, how he was going to answer her.

There were reasons to say yes: He liked her. She didn't understand a sailor's life, but she rolled with his TAD assignments. He'd taken her to several functions like the NATO ball and she'd charmed the admirals and generals in attendance. He loved her company. She was fun. His mother seemed to like her... Mac was set to marry Mic.

With all the reasons that he'd come up with in the last sixteen hours, he could think of only one reason why he should say no. He didn't love her, or maybe he did, but he wasn't _in love _with her. Perhaps it was a subtle difference, but the fact was, when he closed his eyes and dreamed of having a wife and child, he _wasn't_ standing next to Renee.

Mac may have found his offer to have a baby with her spontaneous and somewhat cavalier, but the truth was that, though he'd always known at some point in his life that he wanted to be a father, he hadn't spent much thought on the when or with whom until Bud and Harriet, both younger than he, announced that they were expecting their first child.

Mac had leaped into his mind as the mother without much thought, and he'd spent weeks trying to discount her as a plausible candidate, but no matter the reasons that he could site against the notion, he'd known on some level that she was the one and had stopped fighting it. Resigned to the who, he'd spent the rest of the nine months of Harriet's pregnancy getting some idea of when he'd be ready to give up the Navy - everything if necessary - to have Mac be the mother of his child.

By that day on the steps outside of HQ after witnessing the birth of little AJ, five years had come out of his mouth, and it had seemed right.

Again, it hadn't come to him after long hours of contemplation, but rather a deep rooted feeling in the moment that he'd be ready to be a father in five years.

That's what he hoped for with this decision, a clear cut answer that he knew instinctively was the way that it was meant to be.

A rap on his door pulled him from his thoughts, and he looked up.

It was the last person who he wanted to see. It was Mic standing in his doorway.

"Brumby," Harm struggled to get out. It was hard for him not to refer to him by one of the pet names like Bugme that he had for him when they were in the office. "Did you need something?"

"I was just in Sarah's office, and she told me that you got exactly what you wanted, that the Thompson case won't be going to court's martial. Do you always get what you want?"

"Don't you?" Harm inquired.

"Not always," Mic started, but seeing Sarah coming out of her office and heading his way, he added with a cocky grin, "Yeah, maybe."

"I don't mean to interrupt your meeting," Mac said apologetically to Mic before looking away and into the office. "Harm, when you have a minute, I need to talk to you about the Gipetto case."

"I was just congratulating Rabb on the rabbit that he pulled out of his hat with the Thompson case, so if you have business to discuss, I can shove off and leave you to it," Mic offered.

Harm mumbled to himself, 'I'd like to shove you off of something.'

"I'm hoping to secure early today, so if Brumby is leaving, we can talk about the case now."

"Great, give me two minutes. I'll go to my office, get my notes and come right back."

Harm was so tired that the thought of suggesting that he grab his notes and walk with her to her office so that they could talk there didn't even occur to him.

True to her word, just ten seconds shy of two minutes later, Mac was sitting in one of the two chairs in front of his desk, but he hadn't noticed that she was in the room.

"Harm, Harm!" she said the latter one louder than the first, and he focused on her face.

"Sorry, I was thinking," he offered in explanation.

"You were miles away just now. We could talk about the Gipetto case tomorrow if you'd rather talk about whatever is on your mind," Mac offered.

"Thanks for the offer, but this is one decision that I've got to make solo, but I could use a break from thinking about it, so let's talk about the case now," he said with a grateful smile. It was sure nice to have her as a friend.

They'd spoken about Petty Officer Gipetto's case for nearly thirty minutes before they'd reached a consensus.

Mac made her way to his door, but before she stepped out of his office, she said, "Harm, about this decision that you have to make. Here's my advice. Always let your conscience be your guide."

It seemed like such simple advice, but in that instant, he knew what he had to do. Though it was something that he felt should be done in person, he reached for the phone on his desk and, with the receiver clutched firmly in one hand, he dialed Renee's number.

Renee answered after the second ring, and he told her that he'd made his decision and, though he suggested that they meet to talk, she could tell from the tone of his voice what his answer was and she didn't feel the need to meet him somewhere to hear it.

"Don't drag it out. Your answer is no, so unless there's hope that you'll change your mind between now and tonight, just say goodbye and hang up."

He hadn't wanted to end it this way. He hadn't wanted to hurt her, but the truth was that he was in love with Mac.

"Goodbye," he said softly before he placed the receiver back in its cradle.

HARM'S APARTMENT

DINNER TIME

There was a knock on the door.

It was so similar to the way that his evening had begun last night that he wondered if he'd heard an actual knock or if his mind was playing tricks on him.

For a moment he allowed himself to think that it was Renee at the door, ready to throw her arms around him and say that being with him the way things were was better than being without him.

It wasn't so much missing her that had him hopeful that it was her at the door, but rather the ominous feeling that Renee had been his last chance at happiness.

As he reached the door to his apartment to greet this intruder into his time alone with his thoughts, he mumbled, "I don't have one foot in the grave. I've still got time to find _the_ one."

He turned the knob on the door and pulled it open without first looking through the peephole.

To his surprise, his visitor was Mac.

As if happiness was a balloon inside of him, he inflated at the sight of her, and then realizing that she'd probably heard the news, which would explain the somber look on her face, the air went out of him.

"I'm surprised to see you. I didn't think that Bugme - he didn't have to be professional or even civil when he was in his own home - let you out of his sight," he said sarcastically, immediately regretting his snarky tone.

"He doesn't like to, but he didn't have a choice tonight," she said sadly.

He'd been so wrapped up in his own pain and regret that, until she offered no return volley, just acceptance of his snide comment, he hadn't noticed her demeanor.

"You and Mic have a fight?" Harm inquired, stepping aside and inviting her in without really asking.

"Not a fight ... not even an argument, really," she began as she accepted his offer by stepping inside his apartment and walking passed him.

Harm closed the door, and she spun around to face him.

"He got a call from Renee. She told him that the two of you had broken up. Is that true?"

Harm nodded affirmatively as he spoke, "I don't want to talk about it, but what does my breakup have to do with you and him?"

"After the call, he told me what she'd had to say, and then he asked me if he was the only one in my heart." She sighed heavily before adding, "He just can't get past this thing between you and me."

"Maybe that's because we can't get past it. How did you and Brumby leave things?

"He gave up so much to be with me that I couldn't bring myself to tell him the truth because I didn't want to hurt him, but I didn't want to lie to him either. My silence spoke volumes, and he's currently at my apartment packing to move out."

"It's over?" Harm asked, surprised that Bugme would give up so easily.

Mac only nodded affirmatively in response.

"Why did you come here?" Harm asked apprehensively, not sure that he could handle the answer in his current state of flux, not even sure that this was real. Maybe it was a dream to help him cope with his broken heart. The problem with that was that, though he was sad, he didn't feel like it was broken - bruised he thought described it better.

"It's hard to explain." It really wasn't, but she wasn't sure that she could withstand his rejection again, especially since Mic had told her in no uncertain terms that, unless she could stand there, look him in the eye and tell him that she loved him with her whole heart, that she saw only him in her future, then they were done.

Before she'd left him to pack up his belongings, Mic had even specifically said, "You can't go to Harm and find out that he isn't ready or doesn't want you now and come back here and expect that I'll take you back because I'll know that you're settling for me, and I deserve to be treated better than that."

Though she'd gone down to her car with every intention of going to McMurphy's to have a drink, maybe more, she'd found herself pulling up outside of Harm's building without consciously changing destinations.

She sucked in as much air as her lungs could hold and risked her heart.

"I came here to find out if ... now that we're both single ... " She was having trouble finding the courage to say what she meant when the word 'yet' kept echoing in her head and growing louder with each reverberation.

"You mean that you want to know where we go from here?"

She nodded affirmatively once again.

"I don't think that it's so much a matter of where we go, but with whom we travel, and I definitely think that it's time that we discuss taking the journey together."

"I think so, too," she said sheepishly.

"Do you think that we should give ourselves some time to put today's events into perspective before we talk, or are you ready to talk now about where we go from here?" Harm asked.

"I don't think that we should rush into a relationship, but I don't see anything wrong with two very good friends talking about where they go from here now, do you?"

"No, I don't. I wasn't hungry earlier, so I haven't eaten. What do you say to ordering a pizza, getting us something to drink and just sitting down and talking about whatever comes to mind, whether it's about the loves that we lost today or the love that we hope to find. How does that sound?"

"Wonderful ... don't' forget that I like anchovies on my pizza," Mac said, feeling a hundred times better than when she'd arrived.

Harm was already moving towards the handset on his desk when Mac's pizza topping request reached his ears.

"You like anything and everything on your pizza," he teased over his shoulder as he reached for the handset.

**EPILOGUE**

They'd never actually sit down and talk about starting a relationship. They simply spent time with no one else.

It was on a night two months after their pizza 'date' that, after they'd finished eating a magnificent dinner that Harm had prepared after she'd returned from a particularly harrowing experience in Indonesia, grateful that she'd gotten away from the embassy alive, he'd leaned in and pressed his lips to hers, and she'd responded by wrapping her arms around his neck.

Later that night they'd become lovers. It had seemed perfectly natural, considering that, though they hadn't really thought of it as such, they'd been dating for months.

Happy with their status as boyfriend and girlfriend, neither Harm nor Mac hinted at moving things to the next level.

They were together and happy, and that was the most important thing to both of them.

It would take another few years and the threat of being stationed more than five thousand miles apart before they'd talk about where they'd go from here, but Harm's proposal ensured that, no matter the destination, San Diego or London, they'd be traveling there together as husband and wife.

**THE END**

Did you find all five lines?


End file.
